Rescue operations in twin earthquake-hit Venezuela are currently underway despite the closure of the critical 72-hour window to rescue people alive. The death toll currently stands close to 2,000, while 43,000 others remain missing.
Widespread destruction and structural collapse followed the country after it was struck by 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes mere seconds apart on June 24.
As per numbers collated by the Venezuelan government, opposition, UNICEF, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), at least 1,943 people have been killed so far, more than 10,500 injured, about 16,000 left homeless, more than 6,400 people rescued, about 43,000 missing, around 680,000 children in need of humanitarian assistance, and about 59,000 buildings damaged in the disaster.
Rescue efforts slow down
With the closure of the 72-hour-window, rescue operations continue in the region despite the hopes of recovering people alive significantly reducing. Rescue teams hailing from Ecuador and the US halted operations at a site in Macuto, a La Guaira town, in the early hours of Tuesday when they stopped receiving responses from a mother and her three children trapped underneath a nine-storey building. Search and rescue efforts at the site had been underway for 40 hours by that time.
“In the end, we believe the days have already passed and that what we will find now is death,” said Major Jorge Montanero, leader of the EQ11 team from Guayaquil, located on Ecuador’s Pacific coast told news agency Reuters. “Unfortunately, things haven’t developed favorably.”
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) revealed that tens of thousands of people continue to remain missing despite all efforts made two days after the closure of the 72-hour window as well. “The scale of the response does not meet the scale of humanitarian need,” the committee stated, as survival chances are now expected to have dropped instantly.
An official at the site revealed to Reuters that they did not yet have an estimate on the number of bodies that have already been handed over to families or of those still awaiting identification. Due to the widespread structural collapse caused by the tragedy, many civilians have taken it upon themselves to sift through this debris and locate survivors.
Hope still remains in some quarters as a Jordanian rescue team saved a three-year-old boy from the rubble in Caracas on Tuesday, news agency DW reports. Chances of increasing rescued number still remain slim, however.
Disease and hunger
In addition to massive loss of life, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of the severe strain this will cause to the country’s healthcare system since at least three centers have been critically damaged and six others remain partially functional.
Christian Lindmeier, the WHO spokesperson, has issued an alarm over the risk of the spread of diseases like measles, malaria, yellow fever and dengue among thousands who face poor sanitation and low inoculation rates in their current state of displacement.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for $50 million in emergency aid to provide food assistance for up to 50,000 over the next three months. The organisation has already delivered a month’s worth of food, including cereals, dry beans, lentils and vegetable oil, to 1,200 people in La Guaira and has set up temporary feeding centers.
